And it’s time for another journey into Ponydom. So what will our next amazing adventure be?

…

And it’s #21, “A Bird in the Hoof.”

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TECHNICAL SPECS:

Season: 1
Episode: 22
Written By: Charlotte Fullerton
First Aired: April 8, 2011

SUMMARY:

Shortly after Fluttershy has finished tending to a mouse’s broken leg, she learns from a frustrated Angel that she’s late for a brunch with Princess Celestia at Sugar Cube Corner. Fortunately, the rabbit is there to literally kick her out of the house, where she is almost turned away by the guards before being brought inside by an incredibly nervous Twilight. While Celestia seems to be enjoying herself, there is a definite tension in the air. Rarity is afraid that something will spill on her dress, Applejack doesn’t know in what order one is supposed to eat, Twilight is terrified that Celestia will not like her friends, and Pinkie eats Celestia’s cupcake, thereby becoming cursed to take care of a pair of superpowered infants in one year’s time. Still, she and Fluttershy hit it off fairly well…until Celestia introduces her pet bird, Philomena, who looks to be five minutes away from dying.

At that moment, Celestia is called away by the Mayor for a meeting, bringing the party to an end. Once everypony has left, Twilight is relieved that nothing went horribly wrong…except for the fact that Fluttershy just kidnapped Philomena and dragged her back to her cottage to heal her. But no matter how much she tries, whether it be medicine, aroma therapy, or just a bath, Philomena just keeps rapidly getting worse.

Right as Fluttershy is at her wit’s end, Twilight comes by to thank her for making such a good impression, only to nearly have a heart attack when she discovers Philomena. After some convincing, Fluttershy finally agrees to return the sick bird, but they are too late; the guards have been dispatched to locate Philomena, and the two barely escape being caught. Now that the theft has been made known, the two have to get Philomena healthy again, or Fluttershy will be banished and then put in a dungeon in the place that she’s banished to.

Twilight’s methods, unlike Fluttershy’s, are much tougher and more direct. All this does, though, is encourage Philomena to run when they try to give her some soup, prompting a retread of a previous episode. They finally locate the bird on top of a fountain, where the last of Philomena’s feathers fall out and she plummets to the ground. Fluttershy jumps to make a diving save, but the bird’s body suddenly bursts into flames and all she catches are a pile of ashes.

Even worse, this is when Celestia finally shows up, demanding an explanation for all this. Twilight tries to take the blame, but Fluttershy steps forward and admits to kidnapping Philomena. Celestia sadly looks over the ashes…before telling them to stop fooling around. Soon enough, the charred remains form together into a vibrant, fiery bird. Philomena was actually a phoenix at the end of her life cycle, and the feathers falling out just meant that she was about to explode into flames and then reform healthy once again. All her antics were just the bird having fun at Fluttershy’s expense, and Celestia forces her to apologize. So Fluttershy learns to ask before taking problems into her own hooves, all is forgiven, and everypony has a good laugh, even the guards…after getting tickles by Philomena’s feathers.

REVIEW:

“A Bird in the Hoof” was actually the first new episode of the show I ever saw, back when the episodes premiered on Friday afternoons in what I assume to be either Hasbro scheduling like idiots, or execs simply believing this generation would crash and burn and wanted to focus on established cash cows like Transformers. (How wrong they were.) Having finished watching all of the available episodes only a night before, I was really excited when this came on, and enjoyed it the first time I watched. But after all this time, I have to say it’s nothing special. It’s a fairly average episode altogether.

The prologue has one of those moments that makes me (almost) admire Angel. Despite the language barrier, he manages to get Fluttershy’s flank moving so she won’t miss her afternoon appointment, and all while giving us an Alice in Wonderland reference. And I also enjoyed the bits with Fluttershy continuously thanking him, then running off, and finally returning to thank him some more, to the point where he shuts and locks the door…and she still keeps trying to come back and thank him some more.

The party features some very pleasant and funny bits of character for everypony involved. Rainbow Dash trying to get the guards to react was amusing, but my favorite part was how quickly she just got bored of it all and quit. The guards slamming their wings together like swords and scaring Fluttershy away was actually somewhat clever, and I loved that little heartwarming moment where Twilight walked by and welcomed her in. Rarity freaking out over her dress getting ruined was a funny moment, as was Applejack getting confused over the order one eats their food are both funny little bits to add to the mayhem. And of course, you have Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie, sticking her head into the chocolate fountain and stealing Princess Celestia’s cupcakes.

The ones at the center of attention, though, are Fluttershy, Twilight, and Princess Celestia. Princess Celestia is mostly passive and docile here, but she has her own little bits of character thrown in. She takes everything that happens in stride, and her little prank with the tea was what cemented her reputation as a professional troll. Twilight, meanwhile, is sweating bullets throughout the entire scene, again tying into her fear of offending the princess. Her role in this scene is to mostly see something go wrong, act terrified, and then repeat the process.

But then we get to Fluttershy. At first, she and the princess seem to bond a bit over both loving to take care of little woodland creatures, but that quickly changes when we meet Philomena. If you know your Harry Potter, then yeah, it’d quickly become obvious what’s going on here, but all Fluttershy can see is a sick, dying bird that needs her help. So naturally, her first reaction is to kidnap the thing and drag it back to her cottage. This is one of the things I actually like about Fluttershy; she’s willing to take care of any animal, whether or not she knows what they are or if they don’t belong to her. Granted, she should have just asked Celestia, but if she did that, we wouldn’t have an episode.

The scenes with Philomena getting sicker and sicker are mostly there to facilitate some sight gags. We have the hot/cold thermometer bursting, drowning in soup, vomiting, and Philomena turning into something straight out of AKIRA, all so Fluttershy can suffer righteously in her task. Once we know the twist, however, these bits take a far more mean-spirited vibe to them; while Philomena knows that she’ll be better in no time at all, Fluttershy does not, and is driving herself mad with worthy. Who’s the bigger troll here?

Twilight freaking out over Philomena is a fairly nice scene, showing her fear of the princess’ wrath without going off the deep end like Season Two. I can see why she would have to convince Fluttershy, who’s used to being able to take care of everything, that she just needs to pack the bird back up and smuggle it back. The bit with the guards, however, is a fairly generic joke, albeit a fairly decent one. Still, what really matters is just how over the top Twilight’s imagination is here, to the point where she starts drawing up plans to communicate with each other in case they’re banished to different places that don’t have post offices.

The “tough love” portion is mostly just repeating the same basic gags from earlier, but I like the insight it gives into Twilight’s character, especially given her relationship with Spike and how she knows about dealing with babies in “Baby Cakes.” She’s obviously more authoritarian than Fluttershy, but if you assisted in raising a species capable of eating solid rock and breathing fire, you’d be rather strict, too.

And then we get to the Benny Hill chase, crossed with jokes ripped straight out of Scooby-Doo. Now, I wouldn’t have a problem with this except for one thing: they already used this joke in “The Ticket Master.” Some of the sight gags are funny, I guess, but it just feels lazy and serves mostly to pad out the episode.

I liked Rainbow Dash’s “Is this a race? One-two-three GO!” bit, as well as Pinkie’s reaction when Fluttershy literally pops up under her. And of course, if you haven’t already figured out Philomena’s true nature, her bursting into flames (after having the world’s longest death scene) would be a pretty big giveaway. This is followed by one of the most famous images of the entire series, a moment that has spawned a thousand copy-and-paste memes:

Most of the time, I don't cry when Fluttershy cries. I know some say that they feel like their hearts being ripped out, but I never experienced anything that dramatic. This bit, though, is genuinely sad for a different reason. The whole episode is based around how well Fluttershy takes care of her animal friends, and she has apparently nursed some very seriously sick and wounded creatures back to health. The entire reason she kidnapped Philomena was because she thought Celestia was just too busy to take care of her properly and wanted to nurse her back to health before she gave her back. We've seen her struggling to accomplish anything, growing more and more desperate every time it fails.

And now Philomena, Equestria's royal pet, is not only dead, but a pile of ashes. Fluttershy, the pony whose special talent is the ability to understand and care for animals on another level, was unable to save her. And now all she can do is look at the remains and weep.

The ending stands out as one of the best uses of Celestia in the entire first season, and is probably why I became a fan of hers. She enters in AUTHORITY mode, demanding an explanation from her bowing subjects. Twilight and Fluttershy swapping attempts to take the blame was charming, as was Pinkie interjecting herself into the serious discussion. But the real best moment was when Fluttershy finally admits to what happens, Celestia looks at the ashes in the most depressing manner possible…and then tells Philomena to wake up already. And she does, because she’s a phoenix. But even after that, we get some more insight as she explains how phoenix’s work while offering her own commentary on their regeneration cycle:

And then to top it off, she chastises Philomena for messing with Fluttershy, even calling her a “young lady.” (Although whether that’s because Philomena is young again or because Celestia’s seriously outlived a seemingly immortal bird is up for debate.) There’s also no letter here, as Celestia pretty much departs the lesson herself with some input from Fluttershy. And for the most part, it’s a solid lesson about not rushing into things without all the facts and the value of just asking questions. And of course, the episode ends with a Brick Joke when Dash finally gets the guards to laugh. Oh, the joy.

CONCLUSION:

Overall, this is actually a fairly average episode. Outside of some character development here and there, there’s nothing here that can’t be found elsewhere, nor is there a whole lot to the episode itself. The middle portion with Fluttershy and Philomena drags on a bit too long, and I wasn’t exactly a fan of how they reused the Benny Hill gag to cover up a length issue. Still, I really liked Celestia here, Twilight's panicking was funny, and it's one of the few Fluttershy episodes not to revolve entirely around her overcoming some form of shyness. While nothing spectacular as far as the show is concerned, it's still a good watch.

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Well, see you next time.